The invention relates to a joint fastener for the assembly of moldings, especially for assembling cornices on furniture, consisting of two plug-like fastening elements which can be inserted each in a mortise in one of the moldings to be joined, and a tightening means whereby the fastening elements can be drawn against one another or apart, and it relates also to the assemblage which can be produced using such joint fastener.
As the result of changing attitudes in residential decorating, there has recently been an increasing demand for furniture stylistically reminiscent of furniture of times past. Consequently, cabinets are increasingly being manufactured whose door openings are framed in projecting or receding moldings fastened to the cabinet carcass, or which bear a frieze-like termination at their top or bottom horizontal edges, consisting of what are known as cornice moldings. At the points at which such moldings meet end to end--at a corner of a cabinet, for example--miter joints are formed at which the moldings are cut at 45.degree. angles and they must be accurately joined at the cuts and fastened together. Heretofore the moldings have been glued together at the joined surfaces, requiring, as a rule, mortising or feathering besides. The preparation of such glued miter joints is time-consuming on account of the need for setting the glue, and also requires much labor. Moreover, once the glue has set the moldings can no longer be taken apart without damage if, for example, it develops that an already-glued molding frame has to be reworked for precise fitting to a cabinet carcass.
A joint fastener for joining together the frame elements of door or window frames meeting at right angles is known (U.S. Pat. No. 3,099,051); in this fastener, two pins disposed at each end of two arms pivoted together can be set in associated holes in the moldings to be joined, and the arms can then be drawn together by a screw. The arms and the screw are therefore on the top side of the frame members being joined together, which excludes the use of this fastener for the moldings of friezes or cornices, particularly on low cabinets, because such visible elements of construction impair the physical appearance of a cabinet.
The object of the invention is to create a joint fastener appropriate for the releasable joining of moldings, especially cornice moldings, which will be of simple construction and will permit the easy and rapid clamping together of moldings, in such a manner that, in the assembled state, no parts of the joint fastener will project above the surface of the moldings.